Film review: The Kings of Summer - A deadpan hilarious coming-of-age teen comedy

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Hot stuff: Moises Arias on the shoulders of Gabriel Basso, with Nick Robinson, in the 'The Kings of Summer' (Courtesy of CBS Films)

Something like Thoreau's Walden re-done as a coming-of-age teen comedy, this utterly charming Sundance hit is about a trio of suburban high-school friends – well, two friends and a weirdo tag-along – who strike out for the woods to build a ramshackle cabin, live off the land, and become men.

Deadpan hilarious; good-natured; and with a nicely judged, ever so slightly heightened reality that is fitting for those formative, emotionally intensified teenage years.